About Me

Fr. Murchadh was ordained a priest for the diocese of Galway, in the West of Ireland in 1998. He has worked as a hospital chaplain and in various parishes. He also did further studies in Rome for three years and completed his doctorate in Spiritual Theology in 2005, in the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (The Angelicum). He is currently working in the diocese of Venice, Florida, into which he was 'incardinated' (officially transferred) in May 2018.
Fr. Murchadh has also published three books: Therese of Lisieux: Through Love and Suffering (London:St. Paul, 2005); Centering Prayer and the Healing of the Unconscious (New York: Lantern, 2007); By the Word of Their Testimony: The Journey of a Priest (New York: Lantern, 2009).

Friday, January 4, 2019

The Epiphany (Matthew 2:1-12) All peoples of all religions will recognise Jesus as God

The
feast of the Epiphany is an interesting one. In the Eastern
Catholic Churches (the ones with all the icons), it is the feast
of Christ's baptism, when Jesus was revealed to the world. In our tradition it is the feast where the three kings come to acknowledge and worship Jesus as Lord and God. For some Churches, this is also the day when gifts are exchanged, just as the kings gave the gifts
to the child Jesus. Here we celebrate it as the feast of Christ being
recognised by the world. The three wise men, or astrologers,
were led to this place where Christ was. They read the stars and saw this huge star with great wonder. They are supposed to
have come from different countries. They represent all the
peoples of the world since they were not Jewish. It is a way of
saying that Jesus’ coming is for all peoples of all religions and
race. All people will recognise that Jesus is the Son of God.

The
three gifts they bring are symbolic. Gold is the symbol of a
king. Jesus is a king, King of kings and the master of the whole
universe. The use of frankincense is a sign of recognising a
divinity or God. Jesus is Son of God, the second person of the
God-head. And myrrh is a perfume that represents the suffering
He will go through to win eternal life for the human race. The
symbolism of the three pagan kings is that all peoples of all
religions and nations will recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord and
that we only have eternal life through him.

It
might seem a bit arrogant of us to say that all people will recognise
that Jesus is the Son of God. That seems to imply that we are
right and that everyone else is wrong, but that is not the
case. People of different religions have very different
understandings of God and God speaks to all people through the
different religions. Even for those who never come to know Jesus in
this lifetime, they still have eternal life won for them by the death
and resurrection of Christ and eternal life is still offered to them
through him, just as it is to us. When they die they will see
this at once. They will know immediately who Jesus is and what
He has done for us.

Although
we lost the possibility of eternal life with God through what we call
Original Sin, God regained the possibility of eternal life for us
through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We can accept or
reject this gift individually and we do this through our faith. All
people are offered this possibility regardless of whether they come
to know of God in this life or not, but it is not as if there is a
kind of neutral ground for those who do not believe. We accept
life with God when we die which will be our total fulfilment, or we
lose it forever and that is the choice we must make.

This
is also where our conscience is so important, because even if we
never hear of God during our life, God speaks to us through our
conscience, giving us a basic understanding of what is right and
wrong. Our faith and the teachings of Jesus through the Church
give us a better understanding of what is right or wrong. All of
the decisions that we make throughout our life are bringing us closer
to, or driving us farther away from God.

We
Christians are the people who recognise that Jesus is the Son of God
and has done all these things for us. We consider ourselves
blessed that God has made himself known to us in this way, but it
doesn’t mean that we have a better chance of going to heaven than
anyone else. That depends completely on how we live our life.
When we die we will realise that all this is really true. And
when other people of different religions die, they will also
recognise that Jesus Christ is Lord. What is important for them is to
live their faith as well as they can just as it is for us. If they do
this, God will also draw them closer to him and bring them to
holiness, just as He will with us if we remain open.

Meanwhile
we pray that all peoples will begin to recognise that Jesus Christ is
Lord even in this life, because this is the truth which God has
revealed to us Either way we try to respect people who believe
differently to us and remember that they are also children of God.